Even after hearing my answer, Ruvlian didn’t seem to think so. I escaped from the hand grabbing my cheek and stopped the emotional argument about my feelings that had nothing to do with the current situation. Then I brought up the topic we were originally discussing.
“So what did you do after sending them away that makes you say I don’t need to worry?”
“That uncle also got injured similarly to me. Plus, I sent everyone with Divine Power in the mansion elsewhere, so just treating him will take a long time. The mansion completely collapsed too, but that side probably won’t take much time.”
Certainly, the mansion could be restored with restoration magic, so it wouldn’t take that long. Only treating injuries and finding me would take some time.
Like a habit, my nails clicked against each other. Click-click. A steady sound filled the room. With my back to the sunlight coming through the window, I asked Ruvlian, who was stepping on my long shadow.
“How are you going to obtain blessing and protection from God?”
“Hmm.”
He lowered his eyebrows as if troubled. If it were usual, he would have immediately offered an explanation. Don’t tell me he came without even thinking? Anxiety suddenly covered me. I looked at Ruvlian, who still couldn’t answer properly.
“……No way?”
“What Sihyeon is thinking is correct. I am planless.”
When the eye corners that had been pointing upward drooped down, he became gentle-faced. Subtly dyeing his cheeks peach-colored, I lost my words at his bashfully smiling face. Since he confidently said to go to the temple, I naturally thought he had a method. I don’t know what kind of nonsense that is now.
As if knowing yet pretending not to know my feelings, Ruvlian hooked his finger on my clicking fingers. Soon, perhaps to avoid getting an earful, he gently acts coquettish. However, it only settled my absurdity to some degree; it didn’t disappear completely.
I flicked Ruvlian’s forehead with my other empty hand.
“Ow.”
Since I didn’t put Mana into it, it wouldn’t hurt, but he deliberately whined. While rubbing his forehead that hadn’t even turned red with one hand, he stared at me. It was eyes that wanted something.
However, the one who did wrong now was Ruvlian. There was no reason to grant it. When I completely shut my mouth and didn’t even utter the courtesy phrase ‘Did it hurt a lot?’, he acted spoiled while drawing out his words as if disappointed.
“It hurts so much. If Sihyeon just goes ‘there, there’ once, I think it might get better……”
The index finger hooked like a ring with Ruvlian’s index finger swayed weakly back and forth. Ruvlian was asking me to do something absurd. With the hand that had flicked him, I pulled his soft cheek dyed pale pink.
“Who told you not to make a plan?”
“Buh, lithten. (But, listen.)”
I didn’t pull that hard, and despite only pulling one side, his pronunciation dragged. Since it wasn’t to the point of not understanding, I nodded after letting go of his cheek. It meant to explain.
Ruvlian, who had been looking at the hand that fell away from his cheek with regretful eyes, opened his mouth. His resonant voice dug into my ears.
“Sihyeon is experiencing this situation for the first time, right?”
“Yeah.”
“But I already experienced this situation once when I was young, didn’t I?”
Ruvlian’s gaze went to young Ruvlian sleeping soundly with his mouth open, then returned to me. Only I was contained in his eyes like seawater swaying. His eyes drew a slightly gentler line.
“Because of that past, I meet Sihyeon too. So I’m following my childhood memories.”
“……Was coming to the busy district without a plan like this also in those memories?”
“Just as the current me put young Ruvlian to sleep, I fell into sleep so I don’t know if there was a plan, but I think it was probably like that. When I woke up, everything was already over.”
In the end, it was all just speculation from start to finish. There was no certain plan. Since there were extremely few times when I moved without making a plan, I wondered if this was okay. The only one I could ask about this was God, but God had left due to Ruvlian’s accident. There was no corner to find information.
“Actually, I thought God might come out on their own if I destroyed this place to some extent—.”
“Ruvlian. This is the past. Reduce conspicuous actions.”
“Hmm. I thought you’d say that.”
Ruvlian, who smiled while folding his eyes into crescents, pulled the hooked index finger. As I moved one step forward, I soon became trapped in his arms. Two arms embraced me securely. Warm body heat wrapped around me, and Ruvlian’s fresh yet cool body scent tickled my nose.
Since he’d cried earlier and I had things I’d done wrong, I decided to overlook it this once. Without even attempting to escape, I appropriately grabbed the lower part of his top with both hands.
……But how exactly did this guy receive blessing and protection from God? I suddenly wondered. When this guy is full of thoughts to destroy the world at the drop of a hat as a reason to summon God, I absolutely couldn’t understand how he received them. I wondered if the God of the past was that eccentric.
Whatever it was, it was true that we had to meet God, so it was when I tried to rack my brain again. Knock-knock. A clean knocking sound rang twice. From below the door at that.
When I used detection magic, the figure in front of the door was definitely a child. It was a child about the same age as young Ruvlian. I felt a strangely familiar aura. When I tried to go out wondering what it was, Ruvlian didn’t let me go.
“Let go.”
“Hmm. I don’t want to let go…… Should we go like this?”
“Walk waddling in this state?”
Is that serious? When I spoke in a dumbfounded tone, Ruvlian folded his eyes even more smoothly. The faintly visible blue eyes contained the question of how it couldn’t be serious.
A sigh came out naturally. I was about to tell him again to let go, when Ruvlian made the first move.
“But Sihyeon. Could you possibly say what you just said again?”
What words got caught this time? Something worth getting caught on in what I just said…… waddle-waddle? From before, when Ruvlian liked the nuance of something I said, he asked me to repeat it several more times. Most were things where the lips became round.
“No. So hurry and let go.”
“Seeing as no sound is heard, didn’t they just leave?”
He indirectly says he doesn’t want to let go. Ruvlian hugged me even tighter, showing he had no intention of letting go. However, the absurd thing is that.
“It’s not heard because you used magic.”
When I scolded Ruvlian and gestured toward the door, bang-bang-bang-bang! sounds came. I couldn’t not know due to the door trembling ceaselessly and the flow of Mana I read habitually.
“I’ll say this for the last time. Let go.”
When he had no proper intention of deceiving in the first place. This was just a scheme to extend the time stuck together even a bit more, knowing it would separate.
Ruvlian, who obediently let me go, instead interlaced fingers. When I tried to release them, he blinked pitifully and used a honey trap. In the end, I gave one hand, and opened the door where bang-bang-bang-bang! sounds louder than before were heard. As soon as I opened it, what entered my eyes was fresh water-colored hair and eyes.
……Deadrian?
“God has given a Divine Oracle. May I come in for a moment to explain that Divine Oracle to you?”
There was no expression on the face of the child saying that. Not even a tiny emotion was contained. Even their voice was calm and quiet. To the point where they couldn’t be seen as the person who knocked politely then roughly pounded when the door didn’t open.
The face was definitely Deadrian. The reason I detected a familiar aura was probably also because it was Deadrian. I first moved aside to make space for the child to enter.
“Thank you.”
The pure white priest’s robe had a long hem. Every time the child walked, the clothes dragged on the floor. After the child entered the room, I closed the door.
The child opened their mouth while standing right where they entered.
“God secretly conveyed words. He said to close your eyes, cover your ears, and shut your mouth, so there will be no case of other people learning of this Divine Oracle’s existence. I promise on my baptismal name.”
The blue water-colored eyes were empty. It felt like there was a soul, yet there wasn’t. The child, almost certainly Deadrian, had no emotions to the point where I wondered if they were living their own life.
I had inadvertently thought Deadrian must have grown up like a troublemaker in childhood. It was so different from my imagination. Come to think of it, Deadrian always wanted to quit being a priest. Wasn’t it of their own volition that they became a priest? Perhaps because it was the past of Deadrian, my comrade, I couldn’t help but be concerned.
“……Won’t you listen to the Divine Oracle?”
Perhaps because I just stared silently, the child requested an answer. I slowly nodded, expressing my intention to hear the Divine Oracle. At the very time we needed to meet God, a Divine Oracle secretly conveyed to us was given. The timing was quite coincidental.
“Hear me, my children. I know you wish to receive me. I also know what you desire. I shall send a child among mine who is wise and possesses great power. Follow that child and come to my space.”
As if the Divine Oracle given to us was finished, the child’s mouth closed firmly. The child, who moved one step closer to me, held out their hand.
“God’s words are absolute.”
It meant refusal was not allowed. The more I looked, the atmosphere was different from the Deadrian I knew. Unlike him who dreamed of freedom and moved actively, young Deadrian was bound by a great power. They didn’t think to release it themselves.
“I’ll go. But what’s your name?”
The blue eyes widened roundly. As if they didn’t expect to be asked their name. They showed emotion for the first time. I waited slowly until the child answered. Despite looking at me with eyes wondering what this strange person was.
The child looked at me suspiciously before opening their mouth.
“……Deadrian.”
The name that came out after waiting was as expected. It was a name familiar and precious to me.
